The formation of AEW caused several major New Japan stars to defect from the company, with the latter seemingly refusing to pass on their working relationship with ROH to start a new one. In a new interview with Chris Van Vliet, The Young Bucks went as far as to say New Japan Pro Wrestling "hates" them.

On WWE's view of AEW as competition:

Nick: They hate us, I think.

Matt: Why wouldn't they? We're disrupting everything.

Nick: New Japan hates us too.

Matt: I think everybody looks at AEW as competition because we're this new thing. People are afraid of the unknown. They're like 'who are these guys' and every day you see a new headline about something we're doing. It's intimidating. People are fearful of change, I get it.

Nick: We're gonna stay that way. We're gonna be the alternative and we really do mean it. We want to be different from every other company that you see. I feel like the first 2 shows that we've done, we've given a different type of shoe every time we've done it.

It should be noted that several AEW wrestlers have been able to work for NJPW ahead of AEW's TV debut -- namely Jon Moxley and Chris Jericho. Many in AEW have discussed their desire and willingness to make a relationship happen.

You can see Chris Van Vliet's full conversation with The Young Bucks above.